Monday Mushroom Barley Soup

I often join the “Meatless Monday” club and try to plan a mostly vegetable-focused dinner when I can. This soup is one of my vegetarian favorites. I was especially pleased with it recently when I prepared it in tandem with a baking project. I had a yearning for Marge’s Mandelbrot so I measured and mixed the dough, and while it was resting in the refrigerator I used a lot of the same utensils and bowls to make the soup. Needless to say, the house smells ah-maze-ing.

This soup makes a good amount (about two quarts) so it’s a perfect one to share with friends and family. I ended up adding some carrots to the soup and garnishing with parsley because otherwise, it is brown, brown, brown. One of my “things” is that I like food to look appealing.

Midway through the cooking process, when the barley was done and the mushroom/onion/garlic mixture was nice and soft and fragrant, I thought about how delicious it would be to serve just the slow sauteed mushrooms and cooked barley, perhaps with some fresh tarragon slivers, chopped tomato and fresh corn kernels as a side dish. This is going to happen one of these days while I can still get fresh corn and juicy tomatoes at the farmers market!

In case you are wondering, I also made corn pancakes with a little tarragon thrown in and a tomato topping as well. What a great summer meal!

Monday Mushroom Barley Soup

(Adapted from the Moosewood Cookbook)

Serves 8

Ingredients

½ cup uncooked pearl barley

3 tablespoons butter

3-4 tablespoons tamari or soy sauce

4 tablespoons dry sherry

6 ½ cups stock or water (I added a tiny bit (1 ½ tsp?) of Better than Boullion chicken flavor. Be careful if you add more because of the salt factor.)

1 medium brown skinned onion, chopped

¼ c parsley leaves, coarsely chopped for garnish

2 medium cloves garlic, minced

1 ¼ lb fresh Cremini mushrooms, sliced

fresh ground black pepper

3 large carrots, peeled and sliced into ¼ inch rounds

½ tsp salt-add more to taste

Instructions

Cook barley in 1 ½ cups of the stock or water in a large saucepan or Dutch oven. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer until barley is tender (20-30 minutes). Add remaining 4 ½ stock or water, tamari and sherry.

Meanwhile, melt the butter in a skillet. Add the onions, and garlic Sauté for about five minutes over medium heat. Add mushrooms and salt. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally until everything is very tender (about 10-12 minutes).

Add the sautéed vegetables with all their liquid to the cooked barley. Add carrots and fresh ground black pepper to taste and simmer, partially covered, for another 20 minutes.